WICHITA, Kansas – A group of 250 U.S. Army Reserve soldiers will be deploying to the Middle East this weekend from Wichita. The deployment is one of the largest from Wichita, and some members of the community are coming together to send the soldiers off in proper fashion.

A troop of Wichita Girl Scouts is helping give the soldiers a good send-off by showing their support in a way that’s connected to their annual cookie sales project. While it’s not uncommon for the popular cookies to make their way to members of the military overseas, in recent years the “Cookie Share” program has encouraged customers to donate Girl Scout Cookies to the military or food banks.

So, when a troop of Girl Scouts in Wichita learned of the deployment, they started developing a special plan for the soldiers.

“Then we were like, wouldn’t that be fun if we could have a box of cookies for every soldier that got on that bus,” said Girl Scout mom Laura Baxter.

Sixteen middle schoolers had just one week to get 250 boxes of cookies donated. That amounts to about $1,000.

“This is something that the girls have had to do to go out their and get the money to pay for the cookies that we’re gonna give these soldiers,” said troop leader Sandy Means.

As the girls near their goal, they say they’re excited to hand-deliver the boxes of cookies as a farewell gift to the soldiers on Sunday morning.

“I feel like the families will like really appreciate it because normally they get it while they’re there, but because this is their first or second time leaving it gives them a piece of home to take with them,” said Means.

The sendoff is this Sunday at Intrust Bank Arena. The ceremony starts at 9:20 a.m., and the last time we checked the Girl Scouts were about #420 away from their $1,000 goal.